Help Us Protect West Fayetteville Quality of Life

☀️ We are a grassroots non-profit organization uniting a group of concerned neighbors and citizens. Our mission is to empower our members to collectively protect, defend, and preserve our property rights, natural resources, water, public health, safety, human rights, and environment; and to educate the public about threats and issues that endanger such values.

☀️ We have created this fundraiser to pay for the legal fees and administrative costs to fulfill this mission. Your thoughtful donations will allow us to fund the Appeal from Quorum Court to Circuit Court and possibly reverse the permit approval and stop the expansion of this industrial mine for us, the environment, and future generations.

If you live near this particular mine, this information is particularly important for you, as it radically affects your quality of life.

If you are a concerned citizen wanting to know more about an important issue happening to a Northwest Arkanas community, and want to help, read on and consider donating to our cause.

Neighbors, is an industrial mine operating near your home a nuisance to you?

Are explosions shaking the house?

Damage to your home and foundation?

Loud and constant construction noise?

Wells going dry?

Lower property values?

Dust everywhere?

Big trucks constantly on the road?

Damage to the roads?

Contamination of the environment?

Are you worried about how our watershed is being affected?

Concerned for the well-being of your neighbors?

We were motivated to organize after learning that the Rogers Group Farmington Quarry wanted to expand another 108 acres in our neighborhood and the local government wasn't following their own ordinances to protect our properties.

We witnessed the lack of consideration and general good neighbor ethics from the mine. They wiggled out of the rules. They ignored conditions put in place to protect the citizens around them exposed to their dirty business practices. They failed to uphold safety procedures such as tarping trucks and managing dust.

Roger Group submitted a proposal in September 2022 (for the second time) to double in size and obliterate another 108 acre chunk of the mountain we cherish in our beautiful neighborhood.

Even though most neighbors that were to be impacted by an expansion of this magnitude were not contacted by the planning department, our neighborhood outreach mobilized and spread the word. The planning department reported 34 opposition emails. In the planning board meeting, they couldn't come to an agreement about it and the county attorney said on record that they would have to reapply.

It could have ended there. But, the national mining corporation wasn't going to take no for an answer. They played the next obvious move. They appealed it to the Quorum Court of Washington County.

Many concerned neighbors showed up to the Quorum Court, so many that there wasn't time for everyone to speak. The room was packed.

The neighbors thought that if we organized and let our local government know what a nuisance living with this mine had been, how untrustable their previous actions had proven to be, and how unbearable an expansion would be in our neighborhood, that they would listen and deny the proposal.

After all, they are publicly elected officials there to represent and protect the people. Yet members of the quorum court had received generous campaign contributions from Rogers Group Inc PAC. The chair of the planning board at the time of the proposal was the sales manager for Rogers Group. One of the voting planning board members held stock. Could the ordinances that are intended to protect the people be compromised somehow?

We certainly understand that there is a demand for gravel product, but are they asking us to bear the brunt of it and for it to cost us the loss of our personal property value and ability to live on our property peacefully? Would they make that choice if it was in their backyard?

Would the general public want growth at the cost of the health and well-being of their fellow citizens? Couldn't a more just solution be sought?

The Quorum Court approved the proposal for the mine to expand in the November 2022 meeting, even though 68 neighbors opposed it and many brave neighbors presented solid evidence in the meeting of violations of conditions and ordinances.

The truth is, there is absolutely zero enforcement for these industrial mines regarding conditions placed by the county. They break rules all the time and no one even slaps their wrist. Why is that?

And something really important happened at the November 2022 meeting. The planning department had originally placed certain conditions for the mine to have a CUP approved, including how many times they could blast per week. In the first meeting, they restricted the mine to 1 blast per week. In the second meeting in November, they removed any and all restrictions on blasting, meaning they could now blast as many times as they wanted. They also removed restrictions on operating hours, meaning that the mine could now start running crushing machines at 5:30 am in the morning if they wanted to. And then it got approved.

Isn't the planning department supposed to be looking out for people trying to live peacefully on their property?

It forces the hand of people who care about Fairness, Integrity, Democracy, Health, Environment. And if nothing else, their property values, and their right to the peaceful enjoyment of their property without the disruptive activities of a mine in their backyard.

We had no choice but to appeal the Quorum Court decision to the Circuit Court. Unfortunately for the people, this means that instead of trusting our government to be acting competently in our interest and according to its own ordinances and procedures, we are having to raise our personal funds to stand up to our county and ask them to do their job better.

We are reaching out to all neighbors and concerned citizens to become a member and help to contribute to our GoFundMe fundraiser.

Collectively, we can empower this mission. Leaving it to someone else to take the time, or pay for it is all too easy. The truth is, we are all busy. We all have better places for our hard-earned money to go. But this is a chance for us all to come together and contribute towards our collective protection of what we hold dear.

Our home. Our property. Our health. Our environment. Our safety. Our values. Our fellow neighbors. Our children's future. Our Peace.

We have the luxury of being motivated by our care, while these mines have no choice but to be motivated by their financial interest at the cost of others' well-being.

Let's bring justice to the people, the neighborhood, the environment.

We welcome any and all support.

We have created this fundraiser to pay for the legal fees and administrative costs to fulfill this mission. Your thoughtful donations will allow us to fund the Appeal from Quorum Court to Circuit Court and possibly reverse the Conditional Use Permit approval and stop the expansion of this industrial mine. Thank you.

We expect to have 501 c 3 status on the non-profit in the coming months so your donation should be tax deductible.

If we are successful, here is what will happen:

*The mine will not be permitted to expand another 108 acres in a precious residential setting.

*Neighbors will be empowered to keep a close eye on existing operations and ensure county conditions that are there for the safety and wellbeing of the community are upheld.

*Environmental justice for the mountain and wildlife

*Higher quality of living for residents living near the mine

What can you do to help?

*Make a financial donation. Any amount helps.

*Join our facebook group, talk to others, and share this mission and link.

*Become a member and participate

*Contribute your time and talent to the cause (we will have different teams for fundraising, media promotion, administrative, and public outreach.)

Contact us with your ideas and suggestions and tell us your stories about living with the mine.

Join our mailing list to stay informed about meetings and hearings.

Together we ARE stronger.

And hopefully what we get at the end of this golden brick road is a more

connected community banded together to protect what we love.

Untarped trucks on our roads (threat to safety)

What is expanding at the Rogers Group Farmington Quarry

The group of neighbors that were supposed to be notified

(and not enough people who are truly affected were notified)

Damage to our roads

Dust (and no enforcement on the dust abatement plan)

Traffic delays on our roads

The painful soundscape of living next to the quarry. These

sounds have started as early as 5:30 am and typically are a

constant grating soundscape in an otherwise peaceful place

late into the afternoon. Trucks going uphill,

crushing rock, high-pitch backup beepers, and heavy

machinery sounds.

Rogers Group stated on their permit application that there

would be no outdoor lights. This is a shot of their property

from a neighbor's view.

This summer there were 27 Dumptucks lined up on this

road which is outside of their current mining boundary limit

and beyond their proposed screening berm.